Vietnam

---

I've taken a few days to recover before writing about Vietnam, hoping I would reflect a bit and be able to write a glamorous report about how nice the people were and how much fun I had. Well I can't, three days spent in Ho Chi Minh City and I have a greater appreciation for Western civilisation more than ever. Please remember that what I write in these blogs are my own opinion based on experiences I have had - everyone has different opinions which they are entitled to, none of which are wrong.

To put it bluntly, the place is a complete cesspool. Upon arrival at the airport we got our luggage and went to the airport taxi rank to get to our hotel. We were bundled into a taxi after I double checked it would be on the meter. As we went through the airport toll our driver told us there would be a 200,000 dong 'entry fee' to the city, payable to him as he had just paid it for us to the airport. This didn't sound right to me as I read on the sign it would cost 10,000 dong to get out of the airport. We didn't say anything in the hope that what he actually meant was that is how much it would cost to get us to our hotel. Look at me giving people the benefit of the doubt.... I've really grown as a person on this trip. I noticed his meter going up pretty fast, 2 dong every 2 seconds to be precise. A bit concerned not only by that but also by his erratic driving I quietly spoke to Mikey and we agreed that there was a good chance we were in a scam taxi. We arrived at our hotel and we're told that will be 1.2 million dong.... equivalent to £40 for a 15 minute journey - when we questioned the driver he got a bit aggressive and made out like he didn't understand what we were saying, realising he could drive off with our bags we paid and got our luggage.

After checking into our hotel I started Googling tourist tips for Vietnam. Now before anyone starts thinking oh you had one bad experience, don't let it ruin the trip, I would tell you to Google the UK Gov travel tips when going to Vietnam, also read Trip Adviser reviews on Vietnam. I wish I'd have done that beforehand as my pre-judgemental self probably wouldn't have booked to go based on what I read. There is a whole webpage dedicated to the 'Top 14 tourist scams to beware of in Vietnam'.

Hungry and fed up we decided to go on the hunt for food, we had a great location so it was easy enough to find but getting to it was a challenge. Bikes! Everywhere you look, hundreds of them, beeping swerving oh and in Ho Chi Minh they ride on the pavements (making you understand why bag snatchings are rife here - another tip for you!) It would probably be easier to cross the streets here if there was traffic lights, but there aren't. The rules of the roads here are there are no rules. It's a literal game of chicken trying to cross the roads. The police are a joke, sitting around on their chairs smoking like an old hillbilly - we even saw one pissing up a wall with his shirt all unbuttoned. It's always a worry when a city has to have a specific Tourist Police force to keep tourists safe.

We visited the Cu Chi Tunnels, which were interesting, although it seems to me that Vietnam forget they were fighting their own country as well as the Americans. The tunnels were 100m long, I got 20m along and had to get out because I started panicking. Mikey managed to go the whole way along though and said it got really small at points.

One night we decided to get foot massages, just to compare to Thailand. It was all going great, I was really enjoying mine but I couldn't help but feel like I was being watched. I was looking around for ages but didn't see anything - I looked out the front door and there was a big mouse scurrying along bold as brass coming into the shop. I told Mikey but him being the animal lover he is he just shrugged and said So. So.... So! Ffs how can I enjoy my foot massage with a mouse running around like it owns the place. It ran off and then I saw another and finally one more. Despite it being a reflexology massage I felt more tense than ever leaving that shop. I might have got man handled in Thailand during my massages but at least I didn't have a mouse watching!

A positive about the place was I have finally mastered using chopsticks, after many nights eating quite tasty street food!

I couldn't be happier to get to the airport if I'm honest, I am 100% certain I will never return to Vietnam!

---